It is a desired objective in tire manufacture to carefully control the formation of a pre-cure green tire so as to reduce tire imbalance and maximize tire uniformity. Heretofore, ensuring green tire balance and uniformity was a post-formation procedure, utilizing a single point laser gauge for measuring selective spots on the finished green tire. Conclusions based upon multiple single point measurements were then made and a determination reached as to whether the finished green tire was within acceptable quality specifications and parameters. Tires that did not meet preset specifications relating to uniformity and geometry were scrapped, resulting in costly waste.
While measuring a finished green tire by multiple data points to ascertain whether balance and uniformity characteristics are within specification can be useful for quality control purposes, relying on a post-formation procedure carries certain shortcomings. First, concluding that the finished green tire does not conform to balance and geometric uniformity specifications does not avoid costly waste resulting from scrapping a non-conforming tire. Moreover, the process of measuring the finished green tire by means of multiple single laser point scans is time consuming and does not provide sufficient information for effective real time feedback in order to correct green tire imbalance and geometric anomalies during build-up. Consequently, determining that a finished green tire does not conform to balance and uniformity specifications from a post-manufacture perspective is not timely, does not provide useful information for real time feedback, and does not reduce the cost of scrapping green tires that prove to be non-conforming.
Secondly, measuring a finished green tire by multiple single point measurements as a diagnostic methodology is less than satisfactory. Point measurement of a toroidal surface such as a tire does not generate sufficient geometric slices of the entire toroid to determine the quantitative influence of various geometric anomalies on tire balance and uniformity. Geometric variances and anomalies may escape detection in systems that employ point laser scanners. Measuring a finished green tire by means of single point laser scanner evaluation does not give sufficient information to allow the tire manufacturer to correlate, predict, and correct for tire imbalance and uniformity anomalies.